WWB OF NOTE: I wish I had introduced this book earlier in WWB’s history, because it looks at beauty the way I always intended to do with World Wise Beauty, from the inside out and wholistically.This is a beautiful and thoughtful book about appreciating beauty of all kinds and discovering the healing capacity of beauty not only for ourselves, but for the planet. It’s simple ambition would be to have us all ‘stop and smell the roses’ so we can be fully present and in the moment. On a deeper level, the book offers ways to counteract the ugliness of life with beauty manifesting in all it’s life forms ~Lauroly, Founder of World Wise Beauty

‘In a story from the Jewish tradition, the human soul before birth roams about the universe, collects a great deal of knowledge, sees much beauty, and thus is endowed with great wisdom. But just as birth is drawing near, the angel of death approaches and with his sword touches the soul on the forehead. At that moment, when the soul incarnates into the mass of nerves, organs, and muscles which make up what we are, the drama takes place: The baby being born forgets all it knows. Yet an inkling remains, a vague feeling of what is lost. This, the story tells us is why human beings are born crying, and why they seek, everywhere and all their lives, in confusion and desperation a beauty they feel they have lost. Is there really a soul before birth? I cannot say. And I do not know if we have a past life on other planes or in other worlds. But what interests me here is the experience of this life and this world. The Jewish myth seems to allude to a feeling many, perhaps all of us have; the impression of not belonging to this world. The feeling that makes us wonder ‘What am I doing here?”. Like the alien from the film ‘ The Man Who Fell from Earth” , who came to our planet from a faraway star and landed in an amusement park, we find the world around us strange, and bizarre, and sometimes absurd. And perhaps like him, we feel homesick for a cleaner, simpler, brighter world. Luckily we can see the opposite of what the Jewish story tells is also true when we observe children…’

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Did you hear the news? France passed a law officially banning too skinny models! See article appended below for more details. I personally think it’s a positive law and encourages wellness culture but I also think there is a bigger problem lurking behind this issue. I believe it is the glorification of ‘one beauty type’ and how different cultures create fetish like obsessions over ‘body type and ideal beauty’. When World Wise Beauty debuted, I explored how culture is ‘fickle’ and how ideal beauty changes with each decade and in different countries. You can see in the photo strip above how the ideal body type was very different in just three decades. It went from very voluptuous to straight boyish skinny shapes. The fact is like nature itself we women come in all different sizes and sometimes depending on the ‘culture’ there is a more common desirable body type. I thought Miss Piggy had to included in the beauty romp because she is most definitely ‘comfortable in her own skin.’! lol

What went wrong with the American culture and the fashion world at large is we became obsessed with the ‘skinny’ type as if it was the only ideal. We also elevated celebrity and fashion models as ‘ideal beauty’ through our growing media consumption. Ironically this occurred just when American society started to face that we as a people were becoming increasingly ‘overweight’ and sick to boot! In some sense there was ‘perfect storm’ brewing and let’s just say it wasn’t ‘pretty’. Our narcissistic society now focused on one very limited ideal beauty and body type and directly contributed to young girls and woman developing anorexia disorder. The picture just got uglier because as we saw young girls with tendencies for this horrible and deadly disorder, we also started to see young girls getting fatter and obese. What a strange juxtapostion of fantasy and reality. We can all agree that neither skinny anorexic or obesity is ‘ideal’ when it comes to health and wellness. But let’s not forget that some women are just naturally thin and or naturally plump and happen to be perfectly healthy. What determines this is their state of fitness and health.

It is a very complicated issue when we elevate an ideal beauty type, because the reality is there is no real ‘ideal’. Culture is a fickle thing and in today’s world it is mainly a bunch of fashionistas who are deciding what is ideal. Let us not forget they also take their cues from ‘the people’. The big booty phenomenon seemed odd at first, but is no surprise when you look at the demographics of many countries who have increasing ethnic populations and who also just happen to have ‘bigger booties’. Hooray! Finally after twenty years of the anorexic look we now are seeing shapely curvy women. But here we go again, because the fact is not everyone has a ‘big booty’. Plastic surgeons can fix that but does that really make sense?! Will we women ever be ‘perfect’ and comfortable in their own skin? Not if they can help it! Beware of advertising messages…

When I was growing up I pretty much had a figure like Cameron Russell ( above in black bikini) and I never dieted! It was just a number of factors that made me naturally thin. Genes, active lifestyle, and metabolism were all a part of it. I received such mixed messages about my body. My Italian girlfriends envied me but many Italian men in my region would say “why don’t you put some meat on you!”. I always envied my girlfriends with all the curves, while they were busy hating me for my long slender legs. What’s wrong with this picture? Within my regional area in NYC I wasn’t quite the ideal but that changed very quickly and even landed me in a model agency. The plot thickens because as I entered the modeling world, the ‘all american’ beauty ideal was changing. Models like Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Isabella Rossellini were skyrocketing. And along came Iman! Beauty became more ‘global’ and our ideas about classic beauty was changing. The world continues to spin and ‘beauty ideals’ will change with the wind. But who gets decide if you are beautiful or not? Here is the buried wisdom that most beauty magazines never want you to know. YOU DO! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and most definitely is exuded in the woman who is ‘comfortable in her own skin’. 😉

If you were more curvy, became skinnier or had longer legs would you then be more comfortable in your own skin? Think about it and listen to an articulate, wise and honest model talk about the power of image and perception. Open your mind instead of your eyes and hear what top model Cameron Russell has to say at TEDX talks. Click on this link Looks Aren’t Everything! and check out what she is wearing and not wearing–you will be surprised! Don’t forget to read the piece below on France’s new law, and tell me if you think we could ever adopt this law here in America! I love Miranda Kerr’s quote and as you know World Wise Beauty has been promoting flowers and inner beauty since it’s inception. There was a very good reason for it because real beauty in nature is found in its diversity. It’s a beautiful world because there is so much diversity and you my World Wise Beauty are part of a beautiful mosaic. Your ‘day’ is sure to come or maybe it past but if you keep following World Wise Beauty you won’t care not one bit, because you will be too busy living your happy life ‘comfortable in your own skin’.

FRANCE OFFICIALLY BANS TOO-THIN MODELS

Will other countries follow suit? Apr 3, 2015 @ 10:27 AM, Elle

The French government officially passed a law today that bans excessively thin models, and that will subject agents and fashion houses who hire them to fines and jail time. Specifically, the law states that all models must present a medical certificate proving that they have a BMI of at least 18 before they are hired for a job.

This measure is part of a larger crackdown on the promotion of anorexia by President Francoise Holland: The second part of this law specifically targets pro-anorexia websites or any other sites that promote “excessive thinness by encouraging eating restrictions for a prolonged period of time, resulting in risk of mortality or damage to health,” incriminating those responsible with fines and jail time as well.

France, of course, is not the first country to take this stance on super skinny models. Madrid’s regional government and Israel have imposed similar, BMI-based bans. In New York, Diane von Furstenberg and the CFDA released a list of model guidelines back in 2012, though these guidelines more publicly targeted age than thinness (aside from some suggestions of how to spot eating disorders among models). Now that France, which arguably rivals New York City as the world’s foremost fashion capital, has enacted these laws , will other countries follow suit?

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“Life is no brief candle, but a splendid torch” is a quote from George Bernard Shaw and I believe it captures the mind and spirit of many ‘Passioneers” in the beauty, health and wellness community. Their passion is infectious and larger than life but it’s their ideal values fueling their passion that is so relevant to us personally and culturally. Tapping into our collective altruism, Passioneers illuminate our interconnectedness to each other and the earth. At ‘Ideal Finds’ I chat with founders of companies in wellness culture who are driven by their ideal values and commit to those values in everything they do in their business. Their key motivation was not to become rich (although they may have) but to share their passion and values with others. When you get to know these Passioneers more intimately you discover just how altruistic they are and how deeply they care about the positive impact their businesses have on the world.

Today I honor two pioneers and ‘Passioneers of Beauty’ who lived to inspire us and improve our world through their educational beauty concepts. Aveda and The Body Shop are world ‘wise’ brands and have since been bought by behemoth corporations, but not before they changed the culture of beauty with their passionate values and socially conscious business practices. It is sad these two founders are no longer with us, but their values and philosophy live on in today’s ‘Passioneers of Beauty’ who carry the torch and continue to advance wellness culture with their new socially conscious ventures. My post is dedicated to all the ‘Passioneers of Beauty’ past and present ( see below for new companies to follow) who don’t just ‘beautify’ us, but also attempt to educate and enlighten us, so we can live more safely, collaboratively and harmoniously with each other and the planet. Because life is too short for business as usual…

Truly HerselfLauroly

On February 15, 2014 Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 72. Horst was a sustainable beauty industry pioneer and environmental activist but for me in essence he was a true “Passioneer”. His passion was for ‘plants’ and he credits his mother who was a herbalist for his great interest in the healing power of plants. This would not be so remarkable if he was a biologist or scientist, except Horst was a hairdresser. What happens when you have a hairdresser with a passion for plants? You get a shampoo line called ‘Aveda’ that would revolutionize not only the beauty business but the culture of beauty and many other industries too.

Horst Rechelbacher, a student of nature, became a successful entrepreneur and signed all his correspondence “Yours in service for a green, healthy and non-violent planet”. Bringing ‘wellness culture’ to the main stream consumer through the experience of natural aromatherapy, he believed his ‘ideal values’ could carry the message of shared purpose and standards. He is one of the three original founders of Business for Social Responsibility, which focused its mission on business and the sustainability of all living species. In 2004, he became a founding member of the Organic Center, a non-profit dedicated to organic education, research and promotion and also received the Rachel Carson Award for a Lifetime Commitment to Environmental Ethics & Integrity. His passion became a beautiful mission we would all benefit from.

Passion for plant-based beauty products paired with his vision for creating safer and healthier products for consumers led him further into a life long search for greater traditional wisdom and plant study, which spawned another company he created called ‘Intelligent Nutrients’. Constantly growing and evolving he now was focused on certified organic products using food-grade ingredients and plant stem-cell science for his new line. He left his company to his longtime partner Kiran Stordalen and daughter Nicole Thomas. Under their leadership the company will continue to advance his life’s work and mission. They now carry the torch and Horst’s passions, values, and mission live on…

There is no better way to capture the essence of a Passioneer than quoting the founder of The Body Shop “My vision, my hope, is simply this: that many business leaders will come to see a primary role of business as incubators of the human spirit, rather than factories for the production of more material goods and services.”Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop died on September 10, 2007 of a brain aneurysm but her ‘splendid torch’ lives on with her company and many other beauty companies who followed her lead. In today’s business world she would cheerfully be called a “disruptor’, but when she introduced The Body Shop to the world back in the early 1990’s her business was “UNusual and she was considered the most outspoken and controversial business woman of her time. She changed the culture of the beauty business and also brought global Human Rights issues to the world stage.

Being not only a woman, but a woman with a very big mission she rattled the cages of capitalism and challenged the global business markets to reevaluate their business practices by educating the consumer on the abuses of human rights occurring world-wide in business industry. In 1976 Anita had nothing more than an enterprising spirit when she opened her first Body Shop store in Brighton, UK , but it was her passion fueled by her values that made her the most successful business woman in the world and put social capitalism in ‘vogue’ around the world. She was a true World Wise Beauty ‘comfortable in her own skin’ and she passionately put social ethics back into the business culture.

” We need a redefinition of beauty from the beauty business–an endorsement of character and diversity rather than the promotion of a physical ideal. I think it is much more appropriate to take a holistic view, to look at the whole, body and soul, spirit and character”. Well if she didn’t rattle the cages, who else could! On the back jacket of her book ‘Business As Unusual”, the USA Today newspaper said ‘The Body Shop isn’t just a shop, it’s an arena of education’. This powerful quote gets to the heart of Anita’s mission. Information and education is power and she began to teach consumers how to assess what ingredients were in beauty products, where they came from and how they were produced in the manufacturing process. The beauty consumer would never be the same and there would be many more beauty companies capitalizing on her business concept by claiming ‘natural and exotic ingredients’. The Body Shop was sold to the beauty giant L’Oreal because if you can’t beat them –buy them! As it turned out, transparency and social consciousness SELLS and the bottom line is what corporations really care about. Profits with principles was the back bone of Anita’s company but it was her personal passion for education and fair business ethics that drove her business to global success. This ‘Passioneer’ changed the beauty industry and culture forever…

Passioneers are independent spirits who have a highly developed sense of ‘mission’. They of course want to please you but their main goal is often a much larger call to action which transcends both their personal needs and any quarterly revenue report you put in front of them. In spiritual terms they are a ‘vessel’ for the message they are called to share and this is so evident when you meet Joshua Onysko, Founder of Pangea Organics. I chatted with Joshua recently for my Ideal Finds department at World Wise Beauty and asked him “How do you maintain your business virtues as your company continues to grow worldwide”? His response was this “My values were not created by a marketing team, they are in fact actually who I am and what I care about, so that makes it easy. Truth + Love + Transparency”. You can hear the whispers of Anita and Horst in the soul of this young, creative, enterprising and most importantly ‘mission oriented’ Passioneer.

Pangea Organics is dedicated to creating a more, new sustainable future one bottle, jar and bar at a time. ‘What’s good for you is good for everybody’. Their conscious business practice includes everything from fair trade sourcing and organic farming to living wages and the use of renewable, recycled and recyclable resources. Watch out Avon and Mary Kay because Joshua is changing his traditional retail business model to a ‘social selling model’ where you can become a ‘Beauty Ecologist’ for Pangea and have your very own at home business selling Pangea. He launched in April 2013 and already has over 1000 Beauty Ecologists in 48 states and it is the largest division in the Pangea business. Joshua is a living breathing ‘Passioneer of Beauty’ and he proves that we all have the ability to change the world and to create change, we just have to make that choice…

If you loved Aveda when Horst was running his company, you will really love Innersense Organic Beauty. Here is a Passioneer ‘team’ (Greg and Joanne Starkman) who are following their own innersense of ‘truth & purity’ and strive to be the ‘cleanest’ haircare line out there. For this committed team there is no ‘fudging’ when it comes to reporting their product ingredients to you.

Greg shared his values in my recent Ideal Finds Q&A “We respect our consumer and know they want clear concise information. We strive to provide that. The words Natural and Organic mean little when toxic or synthetic ingredients are present in products. Numerous companies work hard at hiding or word-smithing their ingredient information to confuse consumers. We tell consumers that they need to be their own advocates”. Passion doesn’t always have to be ‘bold and loud’ but it is an inner burning desire that dictates almost everything you do. For the Starkmans it is all about ‘Beauty Without Compromise’ and their ‘certifications’ keep them in sync with their business ethics and values.

Prizing ingredient transparency and consumer education, Innersense Organic Beauty is proud to be a Certified Green Company and Compact Signor of both Safe Cosmetics & Truth in Labeling Acts, Member of the Organic Trade Association and CCIC Certified Committed to social and environmental sustainability. A study by the Environmental Working Groupshows that women use an average of nine personal care products each day, exposing themselves to 126 unique chemical and potentially dangerous ingredients. And 25% of women use 15 or more products daily! You now can appreciate companies like Innersense Organic Beauty who take product formulation and your well-being very seriously. Most consumers are unaware the cosmetic industry is un-regulated by the FDA or EPA. The organizations noted above hold companies like Innersense accountable and serve as a consumer resource. But the beautiful thing here is our ‘Passioneers of Beauty’, Greg and Joanne Starkman, want to be held accountable. And for this lovely team, being authentic and transparent IS business as usual…

BRAVO to all of the ‘Passioneers of Beauty’! World Wise Beauty is supporting you 100%! I hope all my readers take time to know these companies because I promise you will feel ‘comfortable in your own skin’!

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I would love to bring more “experts” and scientists into the conversation to stir the pot but this is a blog and I have your attention for a minute they say! So tell me what you think? I’m no scientist and have no data to support my theory but I’ve observed that “beauty ideals” differ from culture to culture and “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Just think how we went from Marilyn Monroe to a Twiggy “beauty ideal” in just one decade!

‘Twiggy’ 1960’s Beauty Ideal

‘Sophia Loren’ 1950’s Beauty Ideal

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Beauty ideals certainly change which makes me think it is “wise” to develop what it is on the inside and be “comfortable in your own skin”. Just hop on over to Italy in the 1950’s and another beauty ideal altogether is worshiped and eventually considered a classic beauty by the world!

“Iman” and 1980’s Beauty Ideal

Flash forward a couple of decades later and look who captured the world’s fancy as an ” ideal beauty”. As time marches on and cultures mingle the ideal beauty concept has become less about symmetrical perfection and more “worldly” and eclectic.

Miss Piggy–Timeless Beauty Ideal

The ideal beauty list goes on my friends but my un-scientific conclusion is the world turns and beauty culture is fickle! The wise takeaway? Be comfortable in your own skin, and find the beholders who appreciate your unique beauty inside and out!